Dialects of Rokadong

See also: Rokadong phonology

Rokadong, being a language spoken across many natural barriers, has a large number of dialects. The official dialect of the Quill Kingdom, from which the language originates, is called Pahang, but there are many other important dialects, organized into three broad varieties: Continental, Coastal, and Oceanic. Inter-dialectal intelligibility is relatively high within varieties, and while speakers of each variety have more difficulty understanding speakers of the other two varieties, their language is still generally intelligible, so it is considered one language for all intents and purposes.

Geography

"Continental" refers to the dialects of Rokadong spoken in the interior of Quillan and northern Graphine. This variety is sometimes divided into Northern Continental and Southern Continental, for those in Quillan and Graphine respectively.

"Coastal" refers to the dialects of Rokadong spoken on the west coast of Quillan and in the Rokasela archipelago. This variety is considered ancestral to the other two, due to Oceanic Rokadong having a larger degree of semantic drift and Continental Rokadong having a larger degree of loaning from other languages. The Pahang and Puram dialects are both considered Coastal, though Puram Rokadong is more similar to continental Rokadong dialects than Pahang Rokadong is.

"Oceanic" refers to the dialects of Rokadong spoken by settlers of islands mostly to the west of Quillan. This is the most divergent variety from Old Rokadong of the three. It is thought that Kairitelan and Rokadong started to diverge around the same time as Oceanic and Coastal Rokadong, which would make it the most divergent "dialect" of Rokadong.

Overview of dialects

The following table lists a few dialects of each variety of Rokadong, and their common characteristics. A detailed description of each quality follows the table. A "+" indicates that the dialect has the trait. A "-" indicates that the dialect does not have the trait. A "~" indicates that the dialect has the trait, but under limited circumstances.

Characteristics of Rokadong dialects

	Coastal			Continental			Oceanic
	Pahang	Puram	Tatara	Tishakuwil	Karítatana	Sainatana	Kihiteláh	Ahoteláh	Lerabteláh
[s θ] merger completion (shuzasá)	-	+	-	+	~	+	-	-	+
maintenance of onset [ʔ] (akugaha)	-	-	+	-	+	-	+	-	~
[u] unrounding	-	-	+	-	-	-	+	+	+
final /a/ raising	+	-	+	+	-	-	+	+	+
nonfinal /a/ raising	-	-	-	+	-	-	-	+	+
/ɾ/ approximation (karará)	-	~	-	~	+	+	-	-	-
/ɾ/ lengthening (gantará)	~	-	~	~	~	-	~	+	+
loss of inter-heterovocalic /h/	+	+	+	+	+	~	+	-	~
loss of /h/	-	-	-	-	+	-	+	-	-
disyllabic reduction	-	-	~	-	-	-	~	+	+
/i/ palatalization (íkon)	~	-	~	-	~	-	~	+	+
/v/ reduction (vá takare guro)	-	-	+	+	-	-	-	+	-
particle absorption

Dialectal variations

Tékuhasá and shuzasá

Sá is the name of the Rokadong letter for /s/ (S), though generally, this variation type also applies to its voiced counterpart /z/. In dialects with tékuhasá ("all S"), both major allophones of sá are present - that is, [s θ]. In Old Rokadong, these were separate phonemes, but they have since become one phoneme. For /z/, the equivalent phones are [z ð]. If only the sibilant phone of each is present, then the dialect has shuzasá (snake S).

Generally, shuzasá is the condition of Continental Rokadong and eastern Coastal Rokadong, while the other dialects have tékuhasá, but it is not quite that cut and dry.

In coastal Rokadong, tékuhasá is relatively simple - the sibilant allophones [s z] are used in the onset, while the non-sibilant allophones [θ ð] are used in the coda. Coda /s z/ may be in free variation, but this is still described as tékuhasá.

While continental Rokadong generally is shuzasá, Karítatana Rokadong differs in that final [θ] is maintained, but not final [ð], or either non-sibilant word-medially.

In oceanic Rokadong, the two pairs of allophones are usually in free variation, not following the phonotactical rules of coastal Rokadong. Kihiteláh Rokadong speakers, for example, regularly use the non-sibilant in the suffix -sona, despite the /s/ in that suffix being an onset. Lerabteláh Rokadong, on the other hand, takes the relatively radical approach of merging all four phones, using [s] intervocalically and adjacent to unvoiced consonants, and [z] adjacent to voiced consonants.

Onset glottal stop

Typically, Modern Rokadong is defined as Rokadong from when the glottal stop /ʔ/ was reanalyzed as /∅/ and treated accordingly, changing to a glide. This is reflected in the standard romanizations for words with historic /ʔ/ in the onset, as the standard Rokadong romanization is based on Pahang Rokadong. However, this sound change did not apply equally to all Rokadong dialects, particularly in non-learned content words.

In most dialects, the sound changes of intervocalic /ʔ/ becoming /j/ after front vowels and /w/ after back vowels apply to function words (particles and the like). However, in some very uncommon dialects, the glottal stop is kept even in these words. For dialects without a "-" in the above table, this sound change does not occur for some subset of the Rokadong lexicon.

Lerabteláh Rokadong is the only dialect given a partial check for glottal stop maintenance. This is because while it otherwise matches Kihiteláh Rokadong for this sound change, /ʔ/ has an alternate reaction when disyllabic reduction is applied. In this case, a */ʔː/ generated will become /kː/ instead.

Disyllabic reduction

Dialects with this sound change are characterized by removing the vowel of the sequence /CVCV/ for at least one consonant. This usually requires that the two consonants differ in only voicing, though the second consonant has to be voiceless if they do differ in voicing - that is, ruvafukar will simplify from /ˌɾuvafuˈkaɾ/ to /ˈɾufːukaɾ/, but nakagara does not simplify from /ˈnakagaɾa/. Generally, the two vowels have to also be the same, though /a/ from or pronounced like historic /ə/ can also be the first vowel, as seen in the ruvafukar example. Note that generally this cluster is not reduced at the beginning of a word, though in some dialects the first V is instead epenthesized with the first C. Either way, the result is a geminate consonant /(V)CːV/.

However, Lerabteláh is unique in three ways:

• /u/ can also allow disyllabic reduction for velar C and any V, not just /u/.
• /k ʔ/ are considered the same phoneme for this sound change, turning any combination of those two consonants into [kː].
• /l ɾ/ are considered the same phoneme for this sound change and, like Karroka, still can reduce them despite being voiced, turning any resulting combination of those two consonants into [r], much as with Pahang Rokadong /lɾ ɾl/.

Disyllabic reduction is rarely written orthographically, though it can be specified using the coda glottal stop letter ', which phonetically creates geminate plosives even in dialects without this sound change, in place of the first consonant and its diacritic.

Generally speaking, any of the voiceless plosives or fricatives except /h/ are valid targets for gemination. However, only one needs to be present for the dialect to be said to exhibit disyllabic reduction. This sound change can occasionally happen in dialects not said to exhibit disyllabic reduction due to talking speed and/or prosody - a dialect is said to have disyllabic reduction only if this sound change is applied for slow and/or careful speech.

Interestingly, free variation tékuhasa dialects rarely apply both that sound change and disyllabic reduction on the same sequence - that is, [sː] is more common than [θː].

Loss of /h/

/h/ is a very weak sound in Rokadong, so it tends to get lost in it. Non-onset /h/ was already lost before Modern Rokadong, so it is generally absent from its dialects (unless the sound is regenerated), but even onset /h/ can be lost in certain dialects.

With regard to this sound change, inter-heterovocalic /h/ - is more likely to be lost. Inter-heterovocalic /h/ occurs when the phoneme appears between unlike vowels, such as in naho. /h/ is not as likely to be lost between the same vowel, as in magaha, and when it is lost there, it is also likely lost at the beginning of words.

Unlike other sound changes, such as the onset glottal stop changes mentioned above, /h/ loss usually does not cause an epenthetic semivowel to be placed in its place. For example, most dialects do not pronounce  naho as [nawo], as would be expected from * naqo.

Íkon

Íkon (literally "i-ing") is a phenomenon where the vowel /i/, as well as the diphthongs /ja jo ju/, causes the preceding consonant to palatalize. In most dialects, this depends on either what the preceding consonant is, what the vowel is, or both.

In most dialects with íkon, only the /jV/ glides will palatalize a consonant unless that consonant is a sibilant. These are marked with a "~". In these dialects, usually the /j/ is either shortened or completely absent, in favor of palatalization, and depending on the consonant. For example: in Pahang Rokadong, the /j/ is shortened [ʲ] when the preceding consonant is a plosive (including /t͡ʃ d͡ʒ ɾ/) or labial fricative, and absorbed when the preceding consonant is anything else. While the plosives and fricative /tʃ d͡ʒ ʃ/ are already considered palatal, they may still palatalize further, to [ɕ tɕ dʑ] (also written [tʃʲ d͡ʒʲ ʃʲ]), in some dialects.

In some dialects, such as Ahotélah Rokadong, /jV/ and /i/ both cause íkon, and the effect is more pronounced. For example: in Ahotélah Rokadong, /j/ is absorbed for all non-labial consonants.

Particle absorption

Owing to how common they are, Rokadong's particles often mutate based on their surroundings, in irregular ways compared to content words. This is referred to as particle absorption, as it causes the particle to sound like it has been "absorbed" into the adjacent words. Most of the time, particle absorption remains unwritten. Not all dialects have the mutations in the exact form listed below, if they mutate these words at all.

1. The genitive particle to and conjunction te mutate to tu, ti if the following word starts with a back vowel or front vowel respectively. Note that /a aː/ are considered both front and back.
2. The ergative and accusative particles ká, pá become voiced gá, bá after a nasal. In some dialects with this change, to, te are also affected, and this can compound with the first mutation.
3. The locative particle gun's final n assimilates to a following nasal or plosive.
4. The dative particle laki mutates to lah before a word starting with a plosive. The lah pronunciation of laki is also common outside of this context, so it is the most likely of these changes to be written.